"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (also called "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael, Row That Gospel Boat") is a traditional African-American spiritual first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina. The best-known recording was released in 1960 by the U.S. folk band The Highwaymen; that version briefly reached number-one hit status as a single. It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard Ware was an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, and he wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin William Francis Allen reported in 1863 that the former slaves sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek. The song was first published in 1867 in Slave Songs of the United States by Allen, Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. Folk musician and educator Tony Saletan rediscovered it in 1954 in a library copy of that book. The song is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 11975. Lyrics One of the oldest published versions of the song runs in a series of unrhymed couplets: Michael row de boat ashore, Hallelujah! Michael boat a gospel boat, Hallelujah! I wonder where my mudder deh. [there] See my mudder on de rock gwine home. On de rock gwine home in Jesus' name. Michael boat a music boat. Gabriel blow de trumpet horn. O you mind your boastin' talk. Boastin' talk will sink your soul. Brudder, lend a helpin' hand. Sister, help for trim dat boat. Jordan stream is wide and deep. Jesus stand on t' oder side. I wonder if my maussa deh. My fader gone to unknown land. O de Lord he plant his garden deh. He raise de fruit for you to eat. He dat eat shall neber die. When de riber overflow. O poor sinner, how you land? Riber run and darkness comin'. Sinner row to save your soul. The same source attests another version in rhyme: Michael haul the boat ashore. Then you'll hear the horn they blow. Then you'll hear the trumpet sound. Trumpet sound the world around. Trumpet sound for rich and poor. Trumpet sound the jubilee. Trumpet